Not Impressed

This is an article which was published in a monthly on "campus". It is imperative that you understand this publication has no ties to either the faculty of law nor the law students's society at UBC. Please read and think about whether this is a humourous poke at racial stereotypes and sheer unadulterated racism:

First, let’s drop pretenses and refer to them by the name God gave them, “Indians.” If it was good enough for Columbus it’s sure as hell good enough for this macaque. Let’s not forget that we still have an Indian Act and a Minister for Indian Affairs, so it’s OK to call them Indians in Constitutional class. They probably didn’t have names for them-selves before we got there anyway.

Second, don’t trust them. Don’t look them in the eyes, don’t let them in your house which you built on your land with your blood, sweat, and tears, and never give them a reason. You give them an inch and they take self-government. They don’t have thoughts and morals the way we do. Stay away from the wilds. You don’t want to be strangled for trespassing on some brute’s trap-line, whatever that is. “Unceded territory” is a way of describing land on which Indians spent centuries wandering around and not doing much in particular with. Why do they need so much space anyway? I live in a house with a front and back yard and a little garden for the missus, and that suits me just fine! Remem-ber, White, that you’re being educated on land rightfully worked and developed by your forefathers for God, Queen, and Coun-try, and we’re not going anywhere.

Finally, a band is a group of men of Euro-pean descent who play metal instruments, one of the many things Indians did not have. Any other interpretation is oral history.

- Anonymously published, Guerillaw News

In my feeble opinion, this is simply racist. As a Metis Law student, I was shocked when I read this. The Dean has sent out an email reassuring th entire student body and faculty that this is an unacceptable way to try and spur discourse on sensitive issues. I found the bit about the term "Indian" most interesting, as everyone knows Columbus was mistaken upon hitting North America and calling the Indigenous peoples he encountered "Indians." But perhaps that is the point: voicing grossly uninformed opinions and passing them off (comically?) as fact. Perhaps the students at UBC are simply too sensitive? Perhaps in our hyper-sensitive social climate, political correctness has gone so overboard it's caused a backlash.

All this aside, the piece simply misses the mark; whether it be to evoke emotion or anger or laughter or simply to be shocking, considering the geopolitical context in which it was distributed, I find it offensive. And not because I self-identify as Metis (JP insert objection here) or because I care about the social emancipation of Aboriginal peoples. Simply, because these sorts of articles do nothing to advocate change or facilitate informed discussion on these flummoxing issues. The systematic genocide endured by Aboriginal peoples isn't a laughing matter; neither is their gross over-representation in the criminal justice system, the wide-spread poverty and substance abuse problems which plague First Nations commuities on and off the Reserve nor the myriad of other disadvantages that come with being born an Aboriginal in Canada. I don't know. Maybe the tree-hugging-pot-smoking-yoga-practising-dredlock-liberal Vancouver air has gotten to me? Already: can it be? Discuss.